Extending the Olive Branch
by Dixie Darlin
Summary: (post-series) Victoria Blackwood is more than surprised when her fugitive brother asks her to visit him in prison before his hanging. Will she and Frank be able to patch things up with each other? Or were they always destined to remain enemies?


_I'm really surprised that this show has a section on FFnet...anyway, I've been a fan of this show since I first discovered on the now non-existent Odyssey Channel way back in the 90s. It's a pretty obscure Australian series that had a few actors on there like Guy Pearce, Josh Lucas and even Hugh Jackman (for a short while) on it. Best way I can describe it is that it's like the Australian version of Little House on the Prairie. The toxic, dysfunctional Blackwood family was always my favorite, especially Frank, and it was such a huge mistake to cut them from the show as they were the perfect foils to the titular McGregors. I was pretty distraught and angry when they suddenly disappeared without a trace from the show, they didn't even get a send-off!  
><em>

_Anyway, I'm not expecting this to get any attention, but I'm publishing it anyway because I've had this scenario in my head for YEARS. I was always upset at how they "concluded" the Blackwood family's storyline with Frank being on the run from the law and Victoria (who had come back home only to leave again...ugh so much for settling the Rob/Victoria thing) being penniless and without family.  
><em>

* * *

><p><span><strong>Extending the Olive Branch<strong>

Seeing Frank behind bars in such a disheveled state wasn't nearly as much a surprise to Victoria as it was to receive the call that her brother had summoned her to visit him in jail. It wasn't a secret to anyone that the two harbored a deep hatred for each other, and Victoria almost didn't bother showing up today. Yet here she was standing here in the Melbourne prison facing her two-timing older brother, the bank robber. Such a shame to see a once wealthy young man succumb to such desperate measures, but then again Frank was always a desperate man.

Both of them were glad their father, Oliver, wasn't here to see this; they both had their own individual reasons.

The young woman patted her blonde hair to make sure her pins were in place as she took a careful seat down on the rickety bench opposite her brother. He didn't speak to her, didn't even look her way when she entered. He was hunched over with his eyes closed, his hands clasped together: not because he was praying, Frank wasn't much for religious practices. This was just one of his anxious habits, something that carried over from his childhood. Frank was one of the most nervous people Victoria ever knew, and normally she would mock him except that would be immature. She had come a long ways since her younger days, and she would probably barely recognize herself if she were to go back in time.

"I'm surprised you called for me, Frank," she said simply, folding her hands on her lap.

"I'm surprised you came." He finally looked at her then, his bright blue eyes piercing into hers curiously. "Why did you come?" He coughed a laugh, smirking wryly at himself. "Couldn't resist the temptation to see your brother before he hangs? Wanted to get all the poisonous insults out of your system before it was too late?"

Victoria bristled at the tone, her eyes narrowing. "Knock it off. I don't know why I'm here. I almost didn't come, but..."

Her voice trailed and she glanced away from him. Frank rolled his eyes, never a patient being. "But _what_? I don't want to spend my last hours alive waiting for you to-"

"How about you tell me why you called for me, hmm?" Victoria clenched her jaw, not in the mood to be harassed. If the two Blackwood siblings had anything in common, it would be their temper and stubbornness; both were gifts from their long-dead father. "We both know you'd rather me be the one getting killed, so tell me, Frank. Why did you bother asking for me?"

Her brother looked down again and chewed on his lip. "I don't know," he confessed quietly. "I suppose it's because I...I don't have anyone else..."

"Well whose fault is that?" she said without really meaning to. She was always at her worst when she was around her brother; it didn't help that she hadn't quite forgiven him for throwing her out to fend for herself and leaving her penniless either. "You never accepted any kindness when it was offered to you. And honestly, Frank, robbing a bank? That's pretty stupid, even for you."

Frank never took a scolding well, and he fidgeted in his seat while rubbing his hands together in that nervous way of his, his mouth opening and closing like a fish. "I...I know it was." He sighed and rested his head against the stone slab that made up the walls of his cell. "It was stupid...Father was right about me," he added with a droll smile. "I'm stupid. Nothing but a worthless, useless fool that wasn't worthy of his name."

"Stop being so melodramatic, Frank." Victoria hated when he threw one of his pity parties. "Just be glad Daddy isn't here to see this. His only son being hanged for-"

"Oh, I _am_ glad he's not here," he interrupted her, chuckling sardonically at his situation. "I'm glad everyday that he died in that bloody desert. I hated him _and_ you."

Victoria set her jaw again, her eyes lit up like a blaze. "Is this the only reason you-"

"I just wanted him to love me." Tears fell from his eyes then, and he continued to dryly laugh at his own pain. "That's all I wanted, just for him to love me like he did you. A pat on the back, a compliment, a smile, _anything_!" His voice grew louder with his item he listed off until finally he quit laughing and started to cry into his hands.

Victoria sat there in discomfort; she had never seen Frank cry before, at least not since they were kids. She would always make fun of him, saying he was weak and a coward. Of course she had always repeated everything her beloved father said...

"I wish they'd hurry up and kill me," Frank kept talking through his tears. Victoria wondered if he momentarily forgot she was there. "I hate myself...I wanted to die so many times but was too coward to do it on my own..."

She shut her eyes and blew out her breath slowly. She was reminding herself that her brother only had mere hours to live, and if he felt the need to vent his frustrations one last time then so be it. She reached into her purse and pulled out a handkerchief, leaning over and gently tapping his hands with it so he'd know to get it. Frank jolted up like a spooked animal, looking at it as if she'd just pulled a gun on him.

"What's this? Are you making fun of me?"

"What?" She wrinkled her nose at him. "Don't be ridiculous, Frank, I'm trying to be nice to you which is quite the chore apparently. Just because someone's being nice to you doesn't always mean they're patronizing you or making you out to be a fool." She scoffed lightly, thrusting the cloth at him. "Dry your face already."

He stared at her in disbelief before finally reaching out and taking it from her, and then dabbed his face dry. He offered it back but she held up her hand politely to refuse. He could keep it.

"Um...thanks," he muttered as he calmed down; Victoria was certain that was the first genuine 'thank you' he'd ever given her, if not the _only_ one.

"You're welcome," she returned tactfully. She looked around the cell, inwardly cringing at the lack of upkeep in this place. "Frank, I...I'm not sure why I came here, but now that I am." She took in a deep breath. "I would just like to apologize if I made your life miserable at Balmoral."

Frank gave her a flat look. "_If_?"

She returned the expression. "All right, _fine_, I apologize for making you miserable." She smoothed her skirt out again after crossing her legs another way. "I don't really have an excuse for it, but...well, Daddy obviously favored me over you. I thought it was all right to treat you poorly because he did it."

"Spoiled brat," her brother murmured. Victoria didn't argue with him; he was telling the truth.

"I _was_ one. Being on my own, no thanks to you," she made sure to point that out, "really made me see the error of my ways when I was younger, and...well, I guess I'd like to extend an olive branch. No better time than now given the circumstance."

Frank fell silent again, still clutching the handkerchief between his fingers as if it were his new security blanket. He appeared to want to say something but only nodded instead. Victoria knew better than to expect him to say anything similar in return so a head nod was as good an answer as any.

"I miss Mum."

She snapped back to attention when he said this; she almost _didn't_ hear him, he'd said it so quietly. "What did you say?"

He looked uncomfortable again, doing that open-and-closing thing with his mouth that annoyed her to no end. "I miss Mother," he repeated, this time using the more formal word. He must've not realized that he'd said it out loud the first time. He shrugged it off. "It's nothing really."

"No, it's all right," Victoria assured him. "I've...I've never heard you mention Mother before."

"You never seemed to care," he quipped back, though he looked frustrated with himself at saying it.

She instantly became annoyed. "I was only a baby when she died, I don't even remember her. Of course I never thought to care about her, I never knew her."

"Please hush," he sneered at her, though it seemed a little forced this time. He tried to relax again, going back to staring at the floor. "I never even got to say goodbye to her...she was just gone one day." He sighed heavily as he reminisced. "I'm sure that she was the only person who ever loved me. I never had to prove anything to _her_." He shook his head at himself, as if thinking it foolish to even remember these things. "Not like it matters. I'm not going to the same place she is when I die."

The bluntness of his statement caused a chill to run down Victoria's spine. She hadn't even thought about his spiritual matters. Until recent times, she herself hadn't even considered taking the Church seriously. While he was on the subject, she wanted to ask him about Mother (since their father never talked about her), but the guard tapped on the door with his baton.

"Time's up, Miss Blackwood!"

Victoria curled her lip, never one to appreciate being barked around. She cleared her throat quietly and stood up, dusting off the bottom of her dress with her hands. "Well, Frank, it seems I must be going. Might want to spend your last hours getting right with God."

He actually smiled at that and held his hand against his forehead. "Never thought I'd wish for Colin McGregor to be available."

"Yes, Colin and Emily both would pray with you," she agreed. She stood there in awkward silence, trying to think of anything to say but couldn't. "Goodbye, Frank."

She turned to leave through the door when Frank's hand snatched out and tugged at the bottom of her dress. Victoria swiveled back around, her temper about to flare up at him for daring to grab her like that, but the look on her brother's face made her stop.

"Before you go, I just wanted to say..." He avoided her eyes, hanging his head down and chewing on his lip again. "I wanted to say um... thanks for coming by. And...and that I'm..." He squinted his eyes, his jaw clenching along with his fists. Whatever he was trying to get out was too painful for him. "I'm s-..."

Victoria sighed quietly and tucked a flyaway behind her ear. "I forgive you."

Frank jerked his head up in shock at her, his jaw partially open. She knew it was impossible for Frank to apologize, so she decided to make it easy for him in his final hours.

"Goodbye, Frank," she said again and this time he let her exit.

"Goodbye, Victoria," he responded in turn, looking back at the floor again and still clutching the handkerchief. He heard her heels clacking against the floor and another tear rolled down his face. No one could hear him, but he barely whispered the words, "I'm sorry".

* * *

><p>Frank Blackwood, the only son and eldest child of Oliver Blackwood, was hanged the following morning at dawn.<p>

Victoria, now the last living Blackwood, buried him next to their parents' grave markers.

No one came by to pay their respects.


End file.
